Economic cycles are determined by seasons to a great extent, and may even be influenced by lunar and astrological cycles (there is a lot of evidence to support that), but what surrounded me yesterday was quite terrifying. I was at a West Point Grey cafe on the main shopping avenue of Westside Vancouver and found myself the only customer sitting there, while three baristas milled around. It was at this cafe months ago that I went a number of times and had difficulty locating a seat, and now every day it is dead – and so are the surrounding businesses. I overheard gossip about acquaintances going through unrest in Egypt, Syria, and Tunisia, and also a global trekker who flew out of Japan ASAP when the radiation soared in March (“it’s coming over here, man”). When other people finally did filter in occasionally an hour later, there were no attempts at add-on sales or chatting up the people to boost their morale and encourage them to spend more. Vancouver is being hit by a high sales tax to cover the expenses of the poorly attended 2010 Winter Olympics, but also people are being squeezed as their credit cards max out and mortgages sap their savings away. However, no one seems to be trying to counteract these trends. Pleasant but minimal service.

Meanwhile, as was the case in the States a few years ago when things were first and continuing to get really bad economically, I do not see any evidence of people stepping up their efforts to make money and to inspire others to spend it. I wish I have my digital camera available when I regularly see customers being treated poorly or ignored because the employee of a place wants to “teach them a lesson” by not being overly responsive. A friend of mine who is Canadian who comes to Canada only once every few years was completely taken aback in March 2010 when she visited Vancouver and the cashier attendant would not watch her bags for five minutes while she went to the restroom. She told the girl, truthfully, that if she wanted to and if the girl were a persuasive salesperson, she could drop $1000 on the spot if so inspired, but because of this laziness, Canada (and the US) are doomed to failure. A few days before when she had her hair cut for $22, the male hairdresser had a fit when she asked to have her hair blown dry (who wants to walk outside in the Pacific Northwest/Lower Mainland with wet hair?). Furthermore, a Parisian American expatriate friend and client of mine just today did a video on YouTube about how she sent an $83 check and special letter to a museum of art in New York to send a book to her mother, and the museum sent her check back to France with a letter that said they cannot accept checks (even though it was through Chase-Manhattan bank) and directed her to their website.

If we want things to recover, we have to step it up. “Socialism” as what we have as an economic system now is highly counterproductive. I do not believe in total market-driven situations, because that is very dangerous and unreliable as well, but when people believe that the state has a lot of power and at the same time there is no chance of economic upward mobility, there is this pervasive apathy. It is a spirituality matter. Money is spiritual. Its origin is not, but the manner it circulates says a lot about our collective state of mind. Even if a place that we work has bad pay or prospects are bad, we have to do our best performance for the honor of work itself. We have to make it valuable, we have to make it interesting. We don’t have to become our jobs, but we do need to revere efficiency in this sector of our lives, or the value of labor will never go up again.

Another step from a spiritual perspective is that we do need to put a halt on some of our technological involvement. We do not need to take any steps backwards, but we do need to limit our technological intake, because it is devaluing our market value. Though we should never reward mediocrity, at the same time, the higher we push ourselves to hit a certain technological threshold in order to work, the more of our productive years are taken away from us in training and zero/negative income. Therefore, spend money on the things that are labor/service intensive or that are real assets, rather than technological investments that send your assets to one institution. Google supposedly has 26,000 employees, and none of these precise jobs existed 15 years ago, but you can bet that at least 250,000 jobs (minimum!) were eliminated across the globe as the capital shifted to that organization (nothing against them).

In the meantime, money will flow to the places that are convivial, fun, and seem busy. Where are the buzz spots in your town that are keeping commerce afloat?

2 Responses to Money is a Spiritual Matter

I agree with the apathy that workers have toward their customers but have to also mention the flip side to that apathy. I was at the Mongolian grill the other day celebrating my father’s birthday. The gentleman grilling up our food was working hard getting all our dinners ready for us. As I stood there watching him work and watching the people accepting their food, I didn’t hear anybody thank this man for his hard work. When he handed me my food, I thanked him sincerely. He looked at me with surprise and a smile.

Having been a clerk in my previous life, I know my power to make my customer’s day just a bit brighter. I did it not because I wanted them to buy more, but because I sincerely wanted them to feel good and have a brilliant day. Heck, I have even put my hand in my own pocket to pull out the last bit of change a customer needed and told them to pay it forward to the next person who needed a hand. I also know the power that a customer has to totally ruin a clerk’s day, putting that clerk through hell because she is a captive audience who must try to make the customer happy even though that customer is being belligerent and is totally wrong.

I believe that the one thing that will have the greatest effect on changing our view of the economy is if we start treating each other well on both sides of the counter. Once we can treat each other well and with joy, our prosperity will grow, even if our economy continues to go down into the toilet.

As for technology, it is giving us some of our greatest advantages while at the same time destroying our world. I could write for hours on this subject but think I would rather get off this computer and go outside to enjoy the day!